assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu,
As a convert to Islam, much of my understanding of the earlier Prophets are informed through Christian and Jewish teachings (although I was a staunch atheist, I was reasonably familiar with many of the famous stories).
This has been very useful to me since becoming Muslim, firstly because I didn't have loads of 'new' history to learn, and also because we believe that the Qu'ran was sent to confirm and correct the previous Books of God (swt).
I have recently come into a spot of bother regarding the story of the Prophet Noah [Nuh] (as) , as I was previously always taught that when the flood came, it drowned the entire Earth's population, leaving a pair of every species of animal. Now, there is no historical evidence for this ever taking place, it doesn't fit at all neatly with scientists understanding of the development of animals and plants, and it is extremely difficult to believe that any srt of rainfall could engulf the whole planet or that one boat could hold such a large range of animals (although I understand that all things are possible with Allah (swt)).
However, reading the Qu'ranic account of the story of Nuh (as), it seems very possible that the flood was, although huge, localised, wiping out only one tribe or one society. no mention in any hadith or scholarly interpretation that I have found has even alluded to it being the whole entire Earth.
Also, mankind is frequently refered to as the 'Children of Adam' (as). If the whole of the human population, excepting Prophet Nuh and his family, were wiped out, surely we would all be 'Children of Nuh AND Adam' (peace and the blessings of God be upon them both).
-Can anyone help me by letting me know if I'm missing something important out of this whole conundrum? Maybe I've got it spot on and deserve some kind of medal or statuette (NOT an idol!) ?
-I would also like to hear the non-Muslims' take on the story. Was I wrong to ever think that you believed the whole Earth was flooded in the first place? Is the story a metaphor not to be understood literally at all? Am I mistaken in thinking there is no historical or scientific evidence to believe the whole entire Earth was flooded at a time when humans were inhabiting it? (almost 80% of it is already water, and God is of course capable of anything, whether gigantic or miniscule)
-or am I wasting my time worrying about such an issue when theres more immediate and pressing matters to attend to?
jazakAllah khairun for any sort of feedback (unless it is anti-America in some way...)
Interestingly enough i heard a talk about this a while ago... although it was sometime ago i apologise i dont remember the exact details they gave about the Prophet Noah (as)... but from what i remember they did ask the question about the flooding of the entire world.
Although the flooding did occur it was not of the entire world (possibly a metaphor) but a large portion (i forget the exact arguement in regards to the size) but i suspect it was a localised event and a large area of a state may have been flooded.
They did say theres no evidence to support the flooding of the entire world which is also an arguement that it may have been a localised event. I wouldnt necessarily say its a waste of time debating this... as all knowledge is goooooooood.
I'll see if i can find the talk and get back to you on details.
Oh and DEATH TO THE INFEDELS!!! LOL
... joke.
Back in BLACK
thanku very much for ur helpful reply!
as there does not seem to be many responses I will now allow a[b] small[/b] amount of death-threats to whichever group is most in conflict with Muslims about this particular issue- i think its probably those evil scientists who talk about global warming cos they say the earth will flood when the ice-caps melt, not because of excessive rain. Those ********!
Don't just do something! Stand there.
Im not sure if i mentioned this but apparently Prophet Noah (as) his family and the animals were not the only ones on the Ark. I think i remember reading somewhere there were also 70 odd humans who had been converted before the great flood. Although i may be wrong. :oops:
Again you'll have to wait till i get home and dig out the correct info for you.
Back in BLACK
It was not his (as) family, but the believers.
His (as) own son perished as he refused to believe.
"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens 'as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone'" - David Cameron, UK Prime Minister. 13 May 2015.
yeah I knew about the son. This is why I'm very wary when people talk about someone having great spiritual knowledge or worth because they are a descendant of the prophet Muhammad (saw). the father of prophet Ibrahim (as) was a disbeliever, as was the wife of prophet Lot (as). On the other hand, the wife of Fir'aun was a very pious and praisworthy woman, and as you have already mentioned the son of Nuh (as) also denied the truth.
While I don't mean any disrespect on the many praiseworthy of the Prophet's
family, I don't see how lineage makes u a better or worse person. i'm sure I read a hadith at some point saying something similar.
Don't just do something! Stand there.
For Christians it depends on their bible doctrine. Fundies believe that it was literally the entire world, Catholic tend to take into account these are human writers (though under the inspiration of God) and thus their accounts would be exaggerated due to their own fears of experiencing the situation.
There is indirect evidence of a world-wide flood, taken from very similar and in some cases identical accounts found in ancience mesopotamian, chinese and olmek writings.
The stronger indirect evidence appears to be that there was a massive (yet localized) flood in the levant at some very distant period before history was recorded. The Sumerians and Babylonians wrote this down and the Jews copied it.
Realistically most likely there was no event, this was all just part of the hittite creation myth, which early Jews inherited from the much more sophistocated and influencial Babylonian civilization. Thus to the Christians and then retold by the muslims.
The more you look into this stuff the more you realize there are lots of really old levantine myths born out of early hittite and sumerian civilizations that have been morphed and retold by successor civilizations like the semitic ones.
Now there are two ways of looking at this - it's all just myth laid down by these now extinct cultures, yet they persist in their present forms due to successor civilizations taking them up.
Or these events in one way or another actually happened a very very long time ago, and that Sumerians/Hittites/whatever kept alive a somewhat eroneous oral history of the events which passed to "Gods people" - no matter how you define that, for "cleansing."
Anyway scholars simply accept as fact that Noah was borrowed from the Epic of Gilgamesh, Adam, Eve and the Garden were stories taken from the Enuma Elish myth, the tower of Babel is based off Babylonian ziggurat myths, and story of Abraham from Abi-rama chief of the Amorites in Babylonian myths. All were twisted to conform to monotheism.